Stars in the Ocean
by Mashaka
Summary: t/p! ch. 5: pan is hearing impaired? this fic starts at the beginning (as in pan's actual birth) and it'll end at the end (her death) ^_^ enjoy.
1. Arrival

"Are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet--"   
  
"TRUNKS BREATHE!!" As his mother ordered, the boy stopped his questioning and inhaled all the air he could then began again. Bulma rolled her eyes and turned all her attention to the road so she coud try to block her son's voice out. She was doing fine and dealing, but she couldn't say the same for her Saiyan husband. It must be harder for a man of his intellect and wonderful hearing to be able to block out the voice of a screaming child sitting only two feet behind him. He had already tried covering his ears, but that wasn't helping at all.   
  
"... there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet..." over and over and over and over and over again and every sound was like an assault against Vegeta's brain, tempting it to explode.  
  
"SHUT UP!!!" He screamed as they finally arrived, startling everyone in the hospital parking lot and making an old lady with a heart problem collapse.   
  
"Are we there yet?" Trunks asked once more.  
  
"YES! WE'RE THERE!!! HAPPY NOW?!" There was silence as Bulma turned down the car radio (which had helped in her ingoring her son) and shut off the car she'd carefully parked herself. She was thankful they were here in one piece. Had Vegeta been taught to drive like Son Goku, they probably would have been gone a long time ago... She sighed and thought, 'what a nice day,' but that type of thinking didn't last.  
  
"I DON'T WANNA GOOOOOO!!!!!!" Trunks screamed and started to kick the back of Vegeta's chair again and again. Bulma was screaming, if possible, louder than Trunks, but the boy could not hear her. Vegeta had finally had it, saw someone he knew, jumped out of the car and headed towards the familiar person, greeting him with a fist instead of the common "hello." Goku caught sight of the attack in time and also caught the fist before it connected to his face.  
  
"Vegeta," he whined. "Now?"   
  
"Yes. Kakorot. Now," Vegeta looked mad enough to kill and who else would be better to help him vent his anger? If he just happened to "accidently" kill him in the process of his venting, so be it. Goku shrugged, waved goodbye to an angry Chichi and, still holding Vegeta's fist, instant transmissioned the away from the hospital. Far, far away from all the deathly ill inside that tall building. Goten spotted Bulma's car, (done easily, what with all the noise coming from it) and ran over to greet Trunks. This immediatly stopped the screaming and Trunks hopped out, happy and cool and acting as if he hadn't just been squealing like a spoiled child. Bulma let out an exasperated sigh and honked the horn; her own, personal way of venting.  
:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:  
Goten and Trunks walked down the white, sterile halls of the hospital talking and laughing. Chichi and Bulma were having a little chat on how it was so irritating for husbands to just up and leave at an important time like this for a silly spar when they spar nearly 24/7. They had never been really good friends until after Bulma's marriage, when their husbands had brought them together. They exchanged recipes and tips on how to deal with what they called the "Saiyan Stupidity." Each agreed it was not a trait inherited by their children.  
  
When they saw Gohan, he looked like a wreck. Sharpner and Erasa sat in a corner of the waiting room, far from him, scared to have anything to do with him in his "frazzled" state. He was pacing back and forth and didn't even notice his family and friends enter the room.   
  
"Gohan! Is Videl gonna lose all that weight and flab and fat and beef jerky she ate? Mom says a person is gonna come out of her tummy!! Did she eat that too?" Five-year-old Trunks grabbed Gohan's left leg, wrapping himself around it and sitting on his foot. Gohan continued pacing. Goten grabbed his right leg and sat on his right foot, looking up at his brother in admiration.  
  
"Momma says you made Videl fat, Brother," Goten said quietly. "Did you feed her beef jerky and a kid? In class we learned a kid was a baby goat and a duckling is a baby duck."  
  
"Videl would never eat a baby duck, stoopid!" Trunks looked at Goten from his perch on Gohan's left foot and stuck his tongue out at his friend.  
  
"Well you never know!! It could be a baby goat too!!"  
  
Gohan paid this no mind; he was too worried. He wore Trunks and Goten as shoes for a while until he got tired of pacing and sat down. Since they weren't moving anymore, the children hopped away, in search of vending machines they could break.  
:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:  
When Vegeta and Goku arrived back at the hospital, a little bruised and bloody, Gohan had blown off some steam by screaming at Trunks and Goten for stealing Mr. Mars candy bars and Bulma and Chichi were still complaining about their husbands coming back dirty and leaving in the first place. Men... who needed 'em? This was their daily complaint.  
  
When a new baby finally came into the world there was complete quiet. All the Saiyans and Demi-Saiyans had felt it; the change in the ki Videl had been carrying. They were allowed to see it some time later.  
  
"A GIRL?!" Goku looked immensely disappointed. Vegeta felt like laughing (because Goku had made fun when Bra was born and now it was his turn...) It didn't appear to any of them that a girl could do much better than cooking and cleaning, but in the years to come, Pan would prove them wrong; very, very wrong...  
  
Trunks peered over the railing of the bed and looked at the newborn child, wondering what good she would do for him. He dug in his pockets for the gift he'd gotten her. It was only appropriate that he give Pan something since Bra had gotten a present just a few months earlier. He found what he was looking for and handed it to Videl.   
  
"Don't give it to her yet," He instructed in his five-year-old-matter-of-fact way. "or she might swallow it or somethin'. See what it is? See? It's a lucky penny! That's good luck it brings, now." He smiled and seemed very proud of himself for finding the penny, made in the very year Pan was born. It had a hole at the top of Lincoln's head and dangled on the end of a small, brown string.   
  
Goten scoffed and said girls were made for nothing but teaparties and got quite a lecture from Bulma, Chichi, Videl and every other girl present, but Trunks continued to wonder... what would she do when she was able to walk and talk and know as much as he knew now? He felt his father's presence behind him and was almost sure Vegeta was thinking about how that baby didn't look as pretty as his own little girl, speaking of which...  
  
"Well, we'd better get back. We told the babysitter we wouldn't be too long and Bra's probably giving him a hard time," Bulma said as she waved goodbye to everyone and congratulated Gohan and Videl.  
  
"Yeah!" Trunks agreed, skipping along. "Mr. Piccolo never really did like kids that much. 'Cept maybe Gohan!" Vegeta followed after the two, his arms crossed and a smirk on his face, satisfied with the way he'd bested Kakorot. (His girl was prettier.)  
  
"Hey dad?" Vegeta's short-lived joy ended as he looked down at his son, who was tugged on the sleeve of his jacket. "Where do babies come from anyway?"   
:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:  
well, this is my first trunks/pan and bra/goten fic, so i thought i'd start in the beginning. seemed appropriate to me, anyway. i hope you enjoyed reading the childish way that was written. ^_^ hey, i had fun with it. in the next chapters, it's going to go over most of the lives of pan and bra and their views of the world (and how it changes as they grow) blah blah blah disclaimer blah blah blah dbz not mine blah blah don't blah sue me blah blah blah blah....  
  
mashaka, signing out. 


	2. Close Call

Trunks was your average kid. He loved to play with trains and trucks and mud. He enjoyed making fun of his sibling. He thought his father was the strongest man alive. He wanted to be spiderman when he grew up. He was super-strong. Like I said: average, right? And most average children like the idea of being able to cut up your best friend with a sword, and that's just what he was doing to Goten at this moment.  
  
"EEEEEE!! STOP IT TRUNKS! MY LIFE POINTS ARE GOING DOWN!!!" Goten squealed, his thumbs moving furiously across the video-game controller but not really doing much good. Trunks had unplugged that one, and Goten, with Goku's wit, had not noticed.  
  
"THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO GO DOWN, NIT-WIT!! I'M TRYIN' TO KILL YOU!!!" Trunks hollered back over the music of Bulma's radio which she was using to, yet again, drown out the sound of her screaming children. Suddenly, red flashed all over the screen and Goten saw the solemn letters "K.O."   
  
"That's not fair, Trunks! You cheated!!" Trunks just smiled at this and offered Goten something to eat, knowing his best friend had inherited his father's appetite. Goku ate a lot, even for a Saiyan and Goten ate twice as much. That's why there was not one, not two, not three, but four refridgerators in the Briefs household. Bra began crying as she sat, left unattended, in her highchair. Of course, with Bulma's music so loud she wouldn't be able to tell would she? Using whatever sort of strength she had at this early age, she yanked off the tray and the belt that held her in. She began falling towards the floor.  
  
From the doorway, Vegeta sprinted and caught her, landing on his stomach with his arms outstretched. She was but inches away from hitting her head on the floor, and now that head was in her father's hands, holding her upside down. She was looking at Vegeta's scowling face as he set her upright in his hands and stood. Goten and Trunks were oblivious to what had happened. They were hunting for food through the fridge.  
  
"BRAT!!" Vegeta yelled, making both of them jump.  
  
"Y-y-y-yes, Papa?" Trunks asked as he turned around slowly to see a very, very angry Vegeta holding Bra up by her head. Bra was trying to spin around in his grip, failing miserably and giggling all the while.  
  
"Watch. Your. Sister," He spoke through gritted teeth. Trunks was afraid for a moment that he'd squeeze Bra's head too hard and it'd pop or something, but such things are to be expected from a child with his imagination. It never happened, to his disappointment.  
  
"Kay. Can we go over to Goten's house? He just got a new puppy and Gohan's visiting!!"  
  
"I don't care, just take this brat with you," He set her on the counter top with surprising gentleness and headed back to the Gravity room.  
:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:  
"Hey, Trunks!" Goten accelerated to catch up with his friend, who was holding Bra in his hands. "Didja know Pan's gonna have her first birthday soon? I'm gonna give her a present. Are you?"  
  
"Nah. I already got her one," Trunks moved Bra a litte in his arms so she was pressed up against his shirt so the wind wouldn't hurt her eyes. "That good luck charm lasts a lifetime."  
  
The arrived at the Sons' home just as Gohan and Videl were about to go inside. They exchanged hello's and then sent the boys off to Goten's room to play with the babies.   
  
"They must be stupid. They're trusting us with their babies. From what Papa said, it took a lot of hard work to make 'em.... it's too bad i was asleep when the stork came and dropped off Bra," Trunks sighed and set Pan down on the carpet, placing her diaper bag to the side and grabbing the toys from it. Goten and Trunks talked a while about how Goten was already an uncle and Trunks would have to wait a million years before he got to be one, then noticed something rather odd.  
  
"Guh," The sound came out clear and soft.  
  
"Guh," There it went again.  
  
"Where's that coming from?"   
  
"GUH GUH!!!!" This time it was a shout and they could see it was coming from Pan. She was saying her first... sounds?  
  
"What's a guh?" Goten asked, expecting Trunks to know since he was older, but the purple-haired boy just shrugged and watched Pan. Her back was turned to them as she sat on the carpet and she seemed to be trying to hold her head. She kept hitting it with her hands, as though trying to get something out of it.  
  
"Guh, guh, guh!" She kept saying, and the tone of her voice sounded pained. She was hurt?   
  
"What's wrong, Pan?" Trunks asked, and waited for her to turn around or at least respond to the sound of his voice. She wasn't crying. What was wrong with her?  
  
"Pan? Pan!! PAN!! PAN!!!" Trunks tried again and again. He clapped his hands and threw things against the wall, and still she did not turn around. Gohan came in first, asking what was wrong.   
  
"I guess she hasn't learned her name yet..." Trunks assumed. Videl came into the room to see her baby crying silent tears, picked her up, and attempted to comfort her. Pan just kept holding her ears and sniffling.  
:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:  
well, you can probably guess what's happening. ^_^ the second chapter out so fast! wow! i'm enjoying writing this and i hope you enjoy reading just as much. thanx to my three reviewers for the first chapter... gee, i hope i have more this time. send me your thoughts! i don't care if you luved it or hated it.   
disclaimer: look at the blah blah blah first blah blah chapter blah blah blah blah.  
  
mashaka, signing out... signing... signed. 


	3. Doctor Daddy

Videl came home, back from her father's extravagent mansion, to find her husband lying on the couch, with Pan on his stomach, each of them snoring lightly and sleeping soundly. A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Where once she'd been frowning at her father's "new woman" she now found reason to smile; and all she had to do was walk through the front door of her house. She took off her coat and hung it on the rack along with her keys and set her purse on the small table sitting beside the couch. She gently and carefully picked up her child and carried her to her room. The four-year-old stirred a bit but stayed in slumber, shifting just a little in her mother's arms. Videl's smile widened as she set Pan down in her "big girl bed" and removed those sticker-like fake earrings and the hearing-aids that she'd gotten last year.  
  
Videl considered their family blessed when they'd found out that her hearing loss wasn't as bad as they originally thought. All she needed was a pair of hearing-aids and a little repeating now and then. Gohan did look a little crest-fallen when the audiologist had mentioned that the hearing might worsen a little as time when on, but it was a bridge they'd cross when they came to it. Right now, this mother wasn't worried about her child. She was surrounded by violent aliens who fomerly killed for a living and those who'd dedicated their lives to saving the earth time and time and time again and were about as concerned with their own family as they were with the economy. But they weren't the ones taking excellent care of Pan; it was Goten and Trunks and Bra that stayed by her side adn became her best friends. She was now allowed to wear and keep the "welcome here" present Trunks had gotten her so long ago. She had never taken it off, and still kept it around her neck as she slept peacefully.  
:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:  
Trunks ran and ran and ran until he could run no more. It took him a minute to figure out where he had run to, exactly. He'd just known that when the teacher screamed and shouted infuriated curses to his name, he had to run. The purple-haired boy realized now that he was miles and miles away from his school, mostly due to his amazing speed, and he was relatively close to Gohan's home. He headed that way, hoping with all his demi-Saiyan heart and appetite, that they had food prepared.  
  
When he reached their door, he found it was open and there was quite a bit of noise coming from inside the house. It sounded mostly like banging on pots and pans and cereal or something hard and small and in many pieces being thrown on the floor. His guess was right. Pan was banging and Videl was screaming (she had her radio on) and Gohan was rushing out the door to get away from it all.   
  
"Gotta go! Lunch break's over! Bye!" And with that he left Videl to take care of a child who couldn't hear her screams over the banging or music.  
  
Creed came on the radio, singing "My Sacrifice." Trunks came up behind Videl, facing Pan and her mother's back. He began to mouth the words and play an invisible guitar and shake his purple hair all around. Pan noticed all the shaking and silent jumping and began to laugh, just as Videl was about to give up.   
  
**Hello, my friend, we meet again  
It's been a while where should we begin... feels like forever  
Within my heart are memories**  
  
Trunks stopped five minutes later to find Videl had been watching him the whole time. He blushed, suddenly bashful and embarrised and put a hand behind his head, Goku-style.  
  
"Trunks, what trouble are you into now?" Videl asked, referring to his absence from school. The boy put his hands behind his back and used his foot to draw invisible circles in the kitchen tile, looking at them as he spoke.  
  
"Well, I only said the words Dad says to Mom at home."  
  
Videl became worried.  
  
"And the ones Mom throws back."  
  
Videl became even more worried.  
  
"Um, Trunks... I'm gonna... call your mom, okay? Why don't you play with Pan or something?"  
  
Trunks shrugged and headed over to Pan, picking up bits of cereal as he went, and eating them.  
  
"Hey, how ya doin'?" He asked, crunching up bits of fruit snoops as he spoke.  
  
"wha?" Pan looked a little confused, and hit a pot once more. Trunks mentally smacked himself when he remembered that she was learning how to read lips and chewing while talking didn't really help. He swallowed, cleared his throat, and spoke again.  
  
"Hey, how ya doin'?" He asked with a rather thick, fake boston accent from what he'd heard on television. ^_^  
  
"wha?" She asked quietly again.  
  
"Hey. How are you?" Trunks asked, leaning forward and balancing a piece of cereal on the tip of her cute little nose. She giggled and pulled her head back, making the piece fall off.  
  
"I'm okay," She began banging on the kitchenware again, but Trunks began to drag her into the play room, far, far away from the telephone Videl was trying to speak into whilst Bulma was screaming over the sound of her radio and Bra crying. 


	4. Dial Tone

Another year leads to another day. Pan is five now and finally able to go to school to be with children her age. She comes back every day with wild stories of kidergarten about kids who eat glue and others who bite each other or themselves, and others still who pretend they're dinosaurs. Videl listened to the troublemaker's tales with actual interest, and when Gohan came home from work, Pan would run to the door and grab his leg tightly, nearly knocking him over, and began the stories again.  
  
"TODAAAAAAAY Susan ate MORE glue an' almost choked on it when the teacher caught her and sent her out to the hall, an' James said the word 'crap' and got a BIIIIIG spanking for it from the principal!! With a wooden paddle!!! He cried! Can you believe it, Daddy? A boy, crying?"   
  
"Boys can cry, too," He answered, as he pried her off his leg so he could walk properly again.  
  
"What?" She asked, titled her head to the side and squinting her eyes.  
  
"Boys can cry, too," He repeated.   
  
"Nuh-uh! Boys aren't 'possed to cry, DUH!! I learned that word today from Sharron. DUH!!! DUH!!!"  
  
Gohan picked her up and began to walk over to the kitchen table as she continued her 'duh's'. He set her down in the chair with the pillows tied to it (she was learning how to tie knots and needed practice) and then moved to his own seat.  
  
"You know, Tim was talkin' about his daddy havin' a gun in the closet in case robbers come in, but we don't need one, do we, Daddy?"   
  
"Nope," He relpied, shaking his head and smiling.   
  
"'Cause my Daddy's the strongest in the world!! Aren't you, Daddy?"  
  
"Well, not exactly THE strongest..." He began, thinking of his father and putting his hand over his mouth as he did so.  
  
"What?" Pan asked, squinting again.  
  
"Not exactly the strongest," He repeated.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm not exactly the strongest!"   
  
"What?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"What?"  
  
He turned to her and leaned forward and finally said, "Yes."  
  
"See I told Tim that and he said that his daddy was, especially when he was holdin' his gun, but I don't believe Tim, and Tim don't believe me, so...."  
  
"Neither one of you believe each other," Videl finished for her, setting a plate on the table mat in front of her.  
  
"Yeah! You're so smart, Mommy!" Pan grinned and began to eat, her jaws moving, but her tales silenced for the time being.  
:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:  
Videl was speaking with Chichi on the phone one morning before Pan was to leave to school. Her child entered the same room and sat down on the carpet with her bag, holding up an empty lunchbox with ponies on the lid and flowers on the sides. Videl covered the receiver and asked Pan why she hadn't yet packed her lunch.   
  
"I'm too sleepy today," She answered, rubbing her tired eyes with small fists and yawning for added affect.  
  
"Fine. Chichi, I'm gonna let you talk to Pan for a moment, okay? Later..." She handed the phone to her daughter.  
  
"Helloooooo?" Pan asked.  
  
"Hi, Pan! How are you?" Chichi spoke with enthusiasm from her end.  
  
"Hello?" She asked again, not hearing anything but silence and some very low frequencies.  
  
"Pan, it's Grandma Chichi!"  
  
"Hello? Hello?" Pan hung up the phone. A few short moments later, the phone rang again.  
  
"Pan! Why'd you do that? Do you not want to talk to--"  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Pan? PAN!!" Chichi tried to get some sort of sound across to her. She wanted a response from her grandaughter.  
  
"Helloooooo?" Her sweet little voice resounded through Chichi's ears but Pan could not hear hers. It was enough to break a grandmother's heart.  
  
"Hello?" She hung up again shortly after that.  
  
Chichi decided to wait until Videl called her back.  
  
Speaking of Videl, she came into the living room, where the new student was waiting, from the kitchen, holding a newly packed lunch box.   
  
"Pan, did you talk to Grandma?" Pan shook her head. "Why not?"  
  
"She hung up before she could talk to me. So she didn't say nothing."  
  
"Didn't say anything," Videl corrected. "What do you mean, she hung up on you?"  
  
"I didn't hear nothin'." Videl gave her daughter a look. "I mean, I didn't hear anythin'." Pan corrected herself, looking away from her mother's eyes.  
  
Videl picked up the receiver and held it up to Pan's ear.   
  
"What can you hear?" She asked, hoping Pan would be able to pick up the dial tone's sound, it's never-ending alert.  
  
"Nothin'. There's nothing there," She answered. Videl sighed and sent her daughter off to school, thinking about how long and hard this life was going to be for her.  
:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:  
^_^ fourth chapter: five years old. there isn't really a squence with the age thing, but it changes with every chapter, if you haven't noticed. just pan in this one, it was sort of a quickie, but i'll do better next time. p.s. most of this is based on real life expieriences and blah blah blah, so some stuff really happened, the rest didn't.   
  
blah blah blah blah i dont blah blah own anything blah blah 'specially blah not this blah blah blah.  
  
masha... signing out. 


	5. Adolesence in a Sense

"Bah. Whoever heard of a deaf Saiyan?" Vegeta muttered, watching his son screaming at Pan loudly and slowly. Pan shook her head. She needed slower. She needed louder. She didn't need less detail.  
  
12-year-old Pan got so angry when people would simplify their sentence, cutting out whatever made that joke funny or that story exciting. She felt she would miss out on so much, not being able to be there to hear what she wanted to; what they heard. Her friends were considerate most of the time, but they were starting to drift to their own interests and ignoring her in some aspects of their lives. She still got invited to birthday parties and hangouts, but hardly ever shouted at to do something after school, just for an hour or so.  
  
During childhood, everything was physical. It all depended on how fast you ran, how well you fought, how high you could jump, and how low you could go on the limbo. Pan had all those things covered. Her anscestry basically took care of that by itself. Saiyans had such advantages. But when she grew older, more and more depended on conversations and communication skills that she began to notice she was lacking. She said "what?" every five minutes to get the speaker to repeat their last statement, not being able to read the lips of the fast-talking middle school girls.  
  
Telephone. It had been discovered long ago that she could not use the telephone, and so half the communication with most of the girls was cut off. Of course, this was because most females lived for the phone.  
  
Being dreadfully close to becomming a teenager and still not having had a boyfriend did not go over well with most of the "populars," who had already had at least five and dumped a new one every week. Pan was disgusted at the way one acquaintance actually made boys cry.  
  
So many things relied on fitting in and so many consequences were here on that campus. She'd seen kids get bullied and beat-up (though she was sure that wouldn't happen to her) and verbally abused daily with words Pan had been strictly taught never to say. She saw teachers scold children for insubordination, leaving the class when they weren't supposed to, and heard children get called down to the counselor's office because somone squealed they were going to do drugs, drink alchohol, ot kill themselves. This was daily; this was life at a school.  
  
The school she went to got her prepared for the real world before she needed to be, and not just academically. Preparing to face up to the jerks, the snobs, the bullies, the dorks that always borrowed your pencils and lost them.... they all reminded her that the real world was filled with a variety of people. But through it all, she knew she could count on her best friends: Goten, Trunks, and Bra. They were all a team and they were a good one, most of the time, anyway.  
  
So what was wrong with today? Trunks was screaming at her for something she did and she didn't even understand what he was saying, much less be able to "read" what he was saying through all the tears in her eyes. She was sure she was going to be made fun of after this was through. Bra would poke fun about her crying and Goten would laugh about the way she blubbered her sentences. Trunks would blush, embarrised he screamed at her, but would once again remind her not to do whatever it was she was being yelled at for. Yes, soon they would all be sorry.... but what could she do to make them feel that remorse for laughing at her; ridiculing her; torturing her day by day. Not just these three, but the whole world. She was not retarded! She was merely hearing-impaired. There was a difference, and even if there wasn't, they ought to treat her the same! Why couldn't the world see that?  
  
Daily frustration was leading up to this point. She only caught Trunks' every other syllable, sometimes skipping entire words. Every time she didn't understand a sentence, it was shoved into that bottle in her heart that was about to be opened now, unleashing Saiyan rage and fury. Day by day confusion accompanied whatever sort of emotions her pre-teen heart was beginning to understand. She was furious, furious.  
  
She didn't hear the sound of the slap she laid on Trunks' face before she flew off, towards home, away from Capsule Corp. She didn't understand why she did it, or even comprehend that she did. By tomorrow, the would both remember, but neither of them would speak about it. And still, he wouldn't be sorry. He'd just blush, while Bra pointed with one finger, holding her sides with her other hand and leaning on Goten, who was doubled over with laughter himself. She'd show them. She'd show everyon. Even those stubborn adults, so set in their beliefs from childhood that they'd never stray.  
  
Goku, that oh-so-righteous person, always concentrating on protecting the world, his home, his wife and his sons. What about your grand daughter, Goku? He was nice when he wasn't in a fight, but he was constantly battling Pan. When she had been a child, he'd give her candy behind Videl's back, tickle her sides, help her spell those kindergarten words, the only ones in his vocabulary. But here she was now--growing up with hearing-aids i her ears, getting new ones to fit her every so often--and he was battling her. He was fighting her disability, trying to treat her the way the books say, or the ever so conscious Chichi recommends. He no longer tickles her, give her piggyback rides or candy. He smiles, but his eyes are confused. Goku has not the mental capabilities to understand his presence often times hurt her.  
  
Her grandmother was far too cautious. All the time too cautious and it drove Pan crazy. How couls she escape these people? They could all sense ki and fly and stop her with their amazing strength. Even if she went to another planet, they could find her with one of Bulma's inventions. And she was supposed to be a genius? She couldn't even see what the world was doing to young Pan.  
  
:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:~:*:  
that's not all folks! in fact, that's only half of the chapter five i originally had. forgive me for typos, but this was quickly typed up (i had it in a written version at first...) and tylet *mashaka bows* this one's for you!   
  
the fic got dark quickly... but hey, that's adolesence for you! teen years will be even more confusing, if possible, as friends get into trouble with parents, the law, and quite a few other things.... ah, the world is a scary place. this isn't one of those fics where everyone is so happy and life is perfect with just a few bumps and bruises, though wouldn't that be nice?  
  
i think i called myself masha in the last chapter.... my appologies. i can't even spell my own name! T_T  
  
M-A-S-H-A-K-A signing out..... 


End file.
